Port of Rotterdam Pact for Brazil's Pecém Port

As shareholders in the Port of Rotterdam Authority, the Municipality of Rotterdam and the Ministry of Finance have approved the participation in the Port of Pecém, a rapidly growing port in Northeast Brazil.

The participation involves an investment of some 75 million euros and, in addition to holding 30% of the shares, the Port of Rotterdam Authority will have joint control of strategic decisions and positions at Executive Board, Supervisory Board and management level.

The Port of Rotterdam Authority and Ceará State are expected to sign the decision next month, and the following months will be used to further finalise the participation.

Allard Castelein, CEO Port of Rotterdam Authority is delighted with the decision in principle: "Our participation in the Brazilian Port of Pecém is promising for all parties. We have been working as adviser with Pecém for several years. This investment will further intensify the partnership. We will be working with Ceará State to ensure that Pecém expands to become the future logistics and commercial hub of Northeast Brazil."

By acting on the international maritime stage, the Port of Rotterdam Authority is creating economic and social value for the Netherlands Inc. and the Rotterdam-Rijnmond region. The Port of Rotterdam Authority does this by offering opportunities to Dutch companies abroad, learning from international ‘best practices’, retaining the reputation of the Rotterdam maritime cluster at a high level and obtaining financial returns from its international activities. The Port Authority does this in various roles: as adviser, supplier, port manager and investor.

Brazil offers a lot of potential, partly because of its abundance of raw materials and partly as Brazil is expected to become a growth market in the coming decades. As well as the participation in Pecém, the Port of Rotterdam Authority is also involved in Porto Central, a greenfield port still under development in Espírito Santo State.

Pecém is a rapidly-growing port. Its total throughput in 2017 was 16 million tonnes, and the port has undergone an average annual growth of 22% over the past 10 years. The economic growth (national and international) and the related market demand will enable Pecém to continue to develop towards a throughput of 45 million tonnes by 2030. In addition to this, Pecém is an attractive proposition because most of the required infrastructure (breakwaters, berths, land, etc) is already available.

The Port of Pecém has the possibility and ambition to develop into an industrial and logistics hub for Northeast Brazil, which will offer many opportunities for international trade flows and investments from Europe.